Nine targets marketing campaigns via data services unit

Nine Entertainment Co
will launch a data services business designed to help companies to target marketing campaigns using information about customers from a raft of media outlets.

Tipstone will be run by Richard McLaren, who was formerly managing director of data and services for Nine’s digital arm Mi9, and is aimed at helping companies to understand client behaviour and demands. Nine also owns commercial free-to-air television and events businesses.

“I think it’s a recognition that the insights of a media company that we have developed over the last 10 years are incredibly valuable for a whole range of sources outside of media," Mi9 chief executive
Mark Britt
said.

“Suddenly your role as a media ­company means you can be a much better partner to marketers than you have been in the past."

Tipstone will look to take advantage of customer information from more than 14.5 million active accounts across a number of outlets including ninemsn.com.au and Ticketek, as well as Microsoft services Outlook, Skype and Xbox Live.

Nine last year bought out Microsoft from the former joint venture that formed Mi9 . As part of the agreement with Nine, Mi9 continues to sell advertising on Microsoft products, while using the global software manufacturer’s technology and data.

Competitive edge

Mr McLaren said Tipstone’s access to about 70 per cent of Australian digital accounts would give it a competitive edge over rival media companies that are ramping up their investment in “big data".

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“What makes Tipstone different is our coverage of the Australian online population and that we can take a marketer’s investment in customer insights and then use our own data to help them reach and have meaningful conversations with their customers," he said.

Tipstone will also partner Roy Morgan Research, which will give the venture access to behavioural analysis used by media buying agencies to target marketing campaigns on behalf of clients.

Roy Morgan chief executive
Michele Levine
said: “Working with Tipstone we are able to leverage our customers’ existing investment in Roy Morgan, and provide them with a route to ­communicate directly with their target audience."

Fairfax Media, publisher of The Australian Financial Review, last year appointed
Yorgos Moschovis
­director of data and audience insights. Mr Moschovis was previously head of business intelligence and analytics at SingTel, which owns telco Optus.

Woolworths buys in

Seven West Media
signed
David Miller
as general ­manager of business intelligence from Vodafone Hutchinson Australia. He ran the ­tele­com­munications company’s big data strategy and had previously worked at British telco O2. Seven has enlisted ­Nasdaq-listed Acxiom to help build its data analytic capabilities.

Mi9 sees Tipstone as a potential competitor to data analytics business Quantium. Supermarket chain
Woolworths
last year bought half of Quantium, allowing the data company to tap the chain’s de-identified customer data, gleaned from customer loyalty cards, credit and debit cards, to improve ser­vices to clients including eBay,
IAG
,
­Telstra
,
Suncorp
and
Qantas
.